Ted Lutman

KILN

A child made of clay struggles to sculpt themself into adulthood

“Kiln is a single channel 2D & stop motion mixed media animation. The film follows a child made of clay who struggles to sculpt themselves into what is expected of them. Due to pressures they face internally and externally, they have to make a hard choice between fulfilling their own desires and meeting the grand expectations set for them, with both choices carrying dire consequences. The piece heavily draws from my own lived experience as a child with grand expectations thrust upon me. Being diagnosed gifted, living in the shadow of my namesake who I was told at every turn was great and brilliant, and facing pressure to uplift my family out of poverty made exceeding expectations the bare minimum. I truly believed that I needed to put aside my own desires to fully focus on being what everyone else wanted me to be. Not only does Kiln show the struggles and pressure this level of expectation puts on a child, but the consequences of following through on this mentality. The goal of my film is to hold a mirror to this unhealthy ideology, and by showing it so starkly, provoke reflection on how healthy the beliefs one harbors really ”